


Path to the Wrath

by Mirianna



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012), The Avengers - All Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Everyone is a Geek, F/M, Geekfest, M/M, World of Warcraft - Freeform, Wow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-05
Updated: 2012-09-10
Packaged: 2017-11-11 12:30:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/478569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirianna/pseuds/Mirianna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ironman is the best Tank of the server. Probably the best in the whole game. That's Tony Stark for you, teenager billionaire, not yet philanthropist and too busy playing WOW to be a playboy. But Stark’s reign is about to end when a new player enters the Realm. CapAmerika and WinterSoldier put everything Tony has worked for in jeopardy, especially since the new expansion is about to be released.</p><p>Set before the release of WotLK.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Big Boss

Illidan was a thing of the past in Tony's opinion. They mostly farmed it’s ass for gold and loot to sell to the auction house later. The Stark teenager could manage the raid with his eyes closed, even though he was the main tank. Well, truth was that if he DID close his eyes, JARVIS would keep playing for him. What was the use of being a genius if he couldn't do stuff like that? Tony remembered when Illidan used to be the toughest raid out there. The final boss of Black Temple was a tough fight, with close to 8 million hit points- the raid usually took 20 minutes and a good team of 25 players.

The SHIELD Guild was raiding BT every Thursday night, gearing up and farming gold for the upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Tony was looking forward to it- new maps, new raids, new Tiers, ten more levels and the new race, Death Knights.

“Hawk, damn it! Watch what you do with your god damned pet!”

The Boss was currently casting Twin Blades of Azzinoth, which meant two huge-ass fiery tornadoes coming Ironman’s way, but Clint’s stupid pet was distracting him. Thankfully. the Hunter called back his pet, and Tony’s vision was cleared. Even though he knew that his fire resistance was at max, Tony glanced at his armory stats and double checked his buffs.

AC/DC blasted in the background, game noises turned off so the genius could speak on Ventrilo with his Guildmates. Tony was set up with the latest in technology-his technology. Hologram screen, mouse and keyboard. A 3D modulator capable of full projection, rotation and aerial point view of the game. Projection on the walls if he wanted, so he could be fully immersed. Macros, addons and other goodies synced to the very second to maximize Ironman's potential, activated by voice command or keyboard depending on his mood. Tony's play room was, as Clint put it, 'Fucking Sweet'. Ironman, a level 70 Human Warrior, was the best Player versus Environement and PvP player of the Server and Tony intended things to stay that way.

The battle was still raging and Phase Three of the fight was on. Everyone moved into position, working as a unit, spreading out to different points on the map. Tony was facing one of the copies of Illidan, keeping the aggro while three other members of the Guild were nuking the smaller version of the boss. Tony was still on the lookout, fearing the random 4k fire damage the boss could inflict. Last time they raided, they almost got wiped out because the main healer was targeted. Phase Four was a bitch because Tony wasn’t the main Tank while the Boss was in demon form.  
Ironman stood back and ran behind the long-range and healer groups. While the Warlock was doing her thing, Tony checked his buffs, regained his health and checked his rage levels. The next 30 seconds where a complete organized chaos- random players being paralyzed, healers casting to the right and the left, four shadow demons that had to be dealt with quickly. Fortunately, at the end of the phase D Fury’s voice announced loud and clear:

“30% guys, cut scene.”

“Damn, the ice pack is almost melted. BRB guys.”

No one commented on Hawk’s disappearance. They all knew that his old MacBook was burning up after a few hours and that he had a few ice packs close on hands to prevent his laptop from burning down his desk. Tony used the few minutes he had while Illidan was doing his monologue, to stretch his arms. Everyone was chatting and making jokes on the talk channel, betting what would drop this time, who needed what. When the cut scene was finally done, Ironman was ready, his mind completely focused, because the hardest part of the raid was on. Tony asked Bruce to tell him where the traps to deal massive damage to the boss where located. He would then have the difficult task of moving the demon over the trap while ensuring no one get caught by the boss’ rage- yet another tricky situation that could be disastrous if Tony didn’t handle it the right way. After running around for a good twenty seconds and with the help of an off tank, Ironman finally caught Illidan in one of the traps. While every DPS gave everything they had, the sound that no one wanted to hear came from the main healer himself.

“OOM!”

Tony swore under his breath. They were almost finished with the boss and the stupid main heal had to run out of mana! The next voice that came on was commanding and left no room to argue.

“J.J., take Master's place as main heal while he regains his mana.”

Jade Jaw was Bruce's Draenei resto Shaman, second heal in the guild, and in Tony's opinion, way better when it came to managing raids. Guild Master D Fury was in charge of SHIELD, the best Guild on the realm, first Guild to beat Illidan on the server, and most of all, they were all Tony's friends. When he started playing a few years ago, he wanted to have his own guild. Head Master, the SHIELD recruiter quickly saw the potential of Ironman and offered him a spot in the already prestigious guild. Soon after he joined, Hawkeye and Jade Jaw were part of the gang. The name their little group the “Avengers”, elite of SHIELD. On a five man raid, they usually added the vicious Russian Rogue, Black Widow to the roster. Her Night Elf made a cute couple with Hawk and they were often teased about it. Tony suspected that Clint had a crush on the girl, but she was living in Russia, so his best friend was quietly resigned. Depending on who was on, the fifth member of the Avengers was either Goliath or Stigner. The married couple were sharing computer time while the other was in the lab. Tony never met any of them, but he knew that he would probably get along very well with Goliath, a fellow genius well known for his work in biology. Maybe they would do a Guild meet up one day.

Tony watched as, thanks to Bruce's Chain of Heal, their asses were saved and the 10% HP left on Illidan were quickly dealt with.

“And, he's down. Looting time!”

Mererill was third in command after the Head Master. They didn't get along very well, but Tony had to give to her that she was a pretty good mage. She was a heartless bitch when she was selling her portals in Tony's opinion, but he never told her in fear that she would stop doing portals for him at all. The last of the usual gang was Panther, or as Clint called him 'Guru'. He was the one who took Hawk under his wing, showing younger recruits the ropes. Aside from Tony, Bruce and Clint, most of the SHIELD members were adults.

Loot rolls were on and people were chatting and claiming who should get what. Tony switched to the Guild private channel, not really interested by the drops this time.

“Alright gang, Hawk out!”

Tony closed the combat simulator, bringing his interface to a single window, where he scanned the members of the raid slowly scattering away. Stats popped up on another screen, next to his hand. JARVIS was running an analysis and it would be posted on the Guild Forum in a few seconds.

“IM, report with stats ASAP.”  
“Since you asked so nicely, I'll let you know that you are fifth on the DPS list, Fury,”

With a few stroke on the screen at his fingertips, the genius has the stats displayed on the main raid chat.

“Not bad, Widow”

This wasn't common. A pat on the back from the severe Guild Master was as rare as some epic loot but Tony was too tired to say something witty.

“What happened, Master?”

Showing concern for his biggest rival was not something that surprised Stark. Bruce wanted the Main Heal post since he got in SHIELD, but he wasn’t fighting tooth and nail for it. Head Master was a priest and compared to his resto shaman, Fury probably didn't want to take the risk. Tony remember how he had to prove himself to replace the Main Tank the Guild had when he first joined them.

“Miscalculated. Parasites on Thunderer had him almost drained and healing him back up took more than I estimated.”  
“Watch it, Head- next time we might not get so lucky.”  
“Won’t happen again, Fury.”  
“Do you REALLY need this trinket, Thor?”  
“Well, friend Sif, I do not plan to be an Off Tank for the remainder of my play time.”  
“Ok guys, JJ out, too. School night, ya know.”  
“Well guys, I'm calling it a night, too. See you tomorrow at school, JJ”

A few 'good nights' later, Tony logged off, and headed for the gym. An hour of cardio, a long hot steamy shower and then he would hit the bed.

**

The next day, after the driver dropped him off at school, Tony walked to the spot where he hung out with Clint and Bruce. As usual, the dark haired boy arrived first and was sitting on the bench, nose dug in a science book.

“Hey JJ. Nice move yesterday!”

Looking up with a shy smile, Bruce quickly moved left to make some room for his friend.

“It was a one-time deal. Master isn’t prone to mistakes. It probably won't happen again.”  
“We should form our own Guild”

Both teenagers looked up to greet Clint, who dropped next to Bruce, stretching his legs before settling them on top of his friend's knees.

“We can't do that just before the release of Wrath. We need a solid group for the new expansion.”  
“Bruce, you need to learn to take risks. Look at how well things went yesterday!”  
“You know I can’t be Main Heal on a Illidan raid, because of the glitch I have to cancel my totems which means...”  
“Dude, with Wrath that won’t be a problem anymore! Think about it, new instances, new boss. Hell, I’m sure the Lich King won’t be glitchy!”

Tony, who had been silently watching his friends bickering, finally cleared his throat.

“Bruce is right. Clint, you know how hard Burning Crusade was without a Guild. The three of us can't pull this off. Even if we recruit, the chemistry takes time. I don't want to risk it.”

The three of them fell silent, lost in their thoughts until the bell rang. Rising up to their feet, they exchanged nods and secret code handshakes before heading to class.

Class was boring as usual. By dinner time, Tony had already rethought at least three different PvP strategies. They would attempt an arena for the first time, and as usual, the genius wanted to be ready. The Player versus Player mode was very different than beating a boss in an instance or a raid. The Rings of Trial would be the first PvP experience they were planning to have. They would go on three versus three, even after Clint begged him to go on five versus five. Tony trusted Clint and Bruce, but he didn’t want to add anyone else yet. He knew the Hunter only wanted to add Widow to the roster. Even if they added the Rogue in their group, the problem was the 5th member. He had run a few scenarios and no one he trusted could fit the bill. Mererill and her mage would be nice and... Shaking his head, Tony sat at the table where Clint was already stuffing his face with a sandwich. Pulling out his Stark tablet, he slid it toward the blond teenager.

“Tickets for the flight to BlizzCon are booked my friend!”

A huge smile greeted him.

“Dude, 'u 'r' t'be't!”

Bruce hit him behind the head before sitting next to him.

“Don't talk with your mouth full.”

Clint glared, but finished his bite before snarling back.

“Sorry, mother.”

“Aaaaanyway- I was running the plans for the 3v3 this weekend and...”  
“Dude, why don’t we go on 5v5, Widow would be a nice addition to the team!”  
“Hawk, I told you at least a hundred times. Who are we gonna take as fifth member if we go on 5v5?”  
“We could ask Stigner? A warlock would be a nice addition!”

Tony sighed. He was about to to have the same argument he had with his friend over this subject for the hundredth time when a too familiar voice rose up.

“HEY LOSERS!”

The loud voice was the only warning before something hit Tony hard in the back of his head. The football bounced a few times before Barnes caught it. Tony didn’t even have to turn around to know the dumbass quarterback was the one behind him. The dark haired boy was sitting fists clenched under the table, rage starting to build up. Bruce bent toward him,whispering quickly.

“Please, Tony don't do this...”  
“Soooo Stark, got laid? Oh wait no, too busy playing some dorky video game!”

The quarterback and a few teammates laughed. Standing up, Tony turned toward them, eyes throwing daggers. Bruce's voice was almost a whisper, begging him to keep calm. All his muscles suddenly relaxing, a smirk appeared on the billionaire teenager’s face. He cleared his throat before answering the football player.

“Hey, faggots, tired of playing with balls?”

Everyone in the cafeteria gasped, and then things went dead silent. The first one to make a noise was Bruce, and what came out of his mouth was a groan. Following the groan, Clint stood up, an arrogant smirk on his lips before shouting:

“BUUUUURN!”

Needless to say the football players were not happy. Right then some idiot threw a meat ball toward Tony, yelling at the same time: 

“FOOD FIGHT!”

What followed was pure chaos. The three friends quickly made their escape, glad to not get beaten this time. 

They escaped from the cafeteria and decided to settle near the tree next to the parking lot. The trio was halfway through their lunch when a female voice interrupted Clint and Bruce’s argument over the Hunter's pet.

"You nerds will never get laid!"  
"Pepper! I must admit that JJ has a point here, you'd have a better DOT with a..."  
"Tony. You know I don't care about your stupid game. What happened back at the cafeteria?"

The three of them looked at each other, not wanting to have an angry Pepper on their back. Bruce sighed and looked up at the red headed teen.

"No one did anything. Barnes threw a ball at Tony's head, he yelled back an insult, then someone started a food fight."

Pepper was on Tony, the second she heard he was hit.

"I'm fine, Pep, leave me alone!"

She was having none of it, checking his head until she seemed satisfied. The redhead sighed and sat between Tony and Bruce.

"If you want, I can talk to Bucky to..."  
"No. Don't even think about it. And don't drag Rhodey into this. We're fine. Just drop it."  
"You know they're teammates, I'm sure he can drop a good word and..."  
"Pep. That Prada purse you wanted? Shut up and it's yours."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my awesome Beta!
> 
> Here's a little vocabulary to understand some of the game terms.
> 
> Dictionary Thing  
> Illidan: Illidan Stormrage is the Final boss of Black Temple (BT for short) He was the final boss of the 1st expansion of World of Warcraft (WoW), Burning Crusade (BC) He’s a bit of a bitch to kill, you need to move around all the time, he use to have 5 billions of lifepoints and he have 5 different phases that need different strategies and positioning.  
> Black Temple (BT): The place where you have to go to beat Illidan.  
> Farming: An expression use for when you do to something over and over again to have a ridiculous amount of something. Farming Gold is for example beating a boss that gives a lot gold over and over again. Can be use for materials too.  
> Tiers: Super duper awesome set of armor that you can have only by raiding a lot and collecting special tokens.  
> Buff: A temporary spell or effect that makes you more bad ass.  
> PVP: Player vs. Player, combat where a player is fighting against other players. Usually in Arenas or Battlegrounds. Can be used to label a server as “we fight other players all the time”.  
> PVE: Player vs. Environment, any challenge or activity where players fight against computer controlled opponents. Can be used to label a server as “we fight the game not other players”.  
> Aggro: When all the aggressiveness of the monsters are on you. The Tank must have the aggro on him all the time.  
> Tank: The person who keeps mobs occupied while his teammates attack it. He keeps them occupied by getting beaten senseless.  
> DPS: A) Damage per second, the amount of damage a character or spell can do in one second. B) A character that his role in a group is to do damage.


	2. Chapter 2

“JJ. Hawk. Ready for the fight?”

It was finally the weekend and the three friends were in Tony’s gaming room. Clint and Bruce were on their laptops, sitting at the table brought in so the three of them could be next to each other. Another table was placed next to the one where the two laptops were settled to form an L. The second table was full of Mountain Dews, chips, chocolate bars and mini pizzas. Tony was sitting sideways behind his friends, facing the wall where his techy holograms displayed different strategies for the arena. After half an hour of plugging cords, checking the wifi, positioning the chairs and mouses, and finally, placing an ice pack under Clint’s MacBook, the trio was ready to go kick some bad guy’s ass.

“Ok, let me review what’s going on here, guys. We are going to enter the Arena and go on a Three versus Three match. The goal is simple: get in the Ring, kill the other team.”  
“Any useful tips, Oh Master?”  
“Shut up Hawk”  
“No, seriously, Tony. What’s the plan?”

With a few keystrokes, a map appeared next to Tony’s screen . The other two teenages turned their chairs toward the other wall, closely watching the videos and instructions popping up on the hologram.

“That’s the arena floor. Here’s the gate where we start. The door will be closed and we have a sixty second pre-match where we buff up and Clint will have to summon his pet. Then the gate opens, and we go and kill the other team.”  
“And if we die?”  
“The you become a ghost, and you have to sit out until the end of the battle.”

Clint and Bruce nodded at the same time.

“Who are we up against?”  
“We don’t know. That’s the thrill of it!”

Bruce didn’t seemed thrilled at all, his hand whitening because of his grip on his mouse. Logging on, the trio came together as a party, and waited while Tony queued them on the Battle list. While they were waiting, Bruce checked the Guild logs to tone down his nervousness.

“Hey, did you guys know the Guild was recruiting?”  
“What could they possibly recruit? We’re a well-balanced guild.”

Clint turned toward Tony, a long piece of Twizzler dangling from his mouth.

“Heard that Fury wants a bigger Guild for Lich King. In my opinion we need more spellcasters and at least one shadow priest. And you know how Fury loves Pallies.”

Tony made an exaggerated gagging noise. JARVIS’ voice came on, interrupting the laughing fit between the three of them.

“Sir, you have been zoned in. T-minus sixty seconds before the battle begins.”

The room went dead silent. Everyone was getting ready mentally and preparing their characters for the upcoming battle. In front of the gate, the Warrior, the Shaman and the Hunter and his pet were ready to storm the arena. The countdown seemed to take forever, but when the gate opened they swarmed the arena, Tony quickly scanning the adversary team.

“This will be a piece of cake. Rogue, Pal, and Warlock. Guys, you know what to do- just leave the Pally to me”

In the following minutes, all that could be heard in the room were frenetic clicks and keyboards being abused. After a good fifteen minutes and no deaths on their team, the three friends came out victorious.

“YES! High five!”  
“Dude, the Pal almost got you.”  
“Shut up, I was on his ass and he was going DOWN.”

Bruce stood up and arched his back.

“I’m taking a bathroom break. Don’t queue up yet.”

While one in the party was AFK, Tony logged on Ventrilo. He setted up the vocal chat so everyone in the room could hear what was going on, turning on the mics so both he and Clint could talk to the Guild members. Checking who was online, the blond quickly lost interest. He turned back to his screen, heading toward the Auction House. Tony left his character next to the inn where they earthed back, focusing on chat.

“Hey guys!”  
“Hi, IM! How’s the PVP coming along?”  
“Pretty good! What are you up too, Stigner?”  
“I just finished my dailies and I was about to log out from my main. I'll stay if you guys want to team up for something?”  
“Sorry to interrupt, but I would like a word with IM. Come to the second side channel please.”

Tony turned his head toward Clint, raising a brow. Being summoned by HeadMaster was never a good sign. His friend shrugged, having no idea what was going on. A few clicks later, eyes glued to the screen, they both waited for Master to start speaking.

“Hello Ironman, how are you doing?”  
“Pretty good, Master. What’s up?”

The sound of a throat being cleared was heard. Oh ho. This wasn’t a good sign at all.

“As you know, we’ve started recruiting. We heard that a famous Paid Character Transfer-”  
“Sorry to interrupt, O Master but what’s a Paid Character Transfer?” Tony cut in. The other man sighed.  
Clint turned toward his friend, explaining quickly,“It’s when a player pays to change servers. It’s a pain because you never know which server you’ll end up in. Plus you can’t play with the toon for a month.”  
“Right. As I was saying, the cooldown ended a few days ago and he started to look around for a Guild. We took this opportunity and after a quick interview, we decided to take him in starting today.”

“My, my, Master, don’t get your panties in a knot. Who’s the famous PCT?”  
“CapAmerika.”

Tony had the decency to mute the mic before falling to his knees on floor, arms in the air, head thrown back, letting out a loud and desperate:

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Bruce, who was just entering the room, stared at his friends in confusion: Clint was laughing so hard he was about to fall out of his chair, Tony was in agony on the floor, making a scene and babbling incoherently.

“Anyone want to explain what’s going on?” Bruce asked in his usual calm voice.

Clint was tearing up, holding his chest, wheezing something about ‘ribs hurt too much’. Sighing, Bruce knelt next to Tony, clicking the mute button on the hologram keyboard. After turning the sound on, Bruce heard the Master grumbling.

“Hi, Master, JJ speaking. Why is IM crying on the floor like a drama queen?”

Master sighed heavily into the mic. “I told him that we recruited CapAmerika in the Guild.”  
Bruce’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “Who?”

After a scandalized gasp, the Master did something Bruce found surprising, coming from the usually serious player: he started to babble like a schoolgirl.

“CapAmerika was a legend on his server. Excellent strategist, ruthless PvP player and most of all, he was dubbed Master of the Paladin class. Everyone agrees, he’s the best Paladin to ever play the game.”

If he didn’t know better, Bruce would say Master was a fanboy of the player. Glancing toward Clint, the teenager pondered for a moment before the problem hit him. Bruce sighed heavily as he caught on. “Oh. So IM’s worried he’s going to lose his spot as Main Tank?” 

“I never said anything about giving the new guy IM’s spot,” Master defended. “I only told him we got the guy to join our Guild. He’s the one making up scenarios here.”

Bruce turned back to his friends. “Tony, just shut up, okay? They’re not going to replace you.”

“A Pal! A Pal, Bruce!” Tony moaned. “They got a goddamn Pal to replace me!” 

“We don’t know that for sure,” Bruce soothed. When that didn’t work, he decided to stroke Tony’s ego a bit- it was the quickest way to calm the narcissistic teen. “After all, you are the best Tank on the server-”  
Clint broke in before Bruce could add any more flattery. “Drop it, JJ. Tony should be worried. This Cap guy is really good.” 

Bruce sent a withering glare to Clint before patting Tony’s shoulder and heading back to his laptop.

When he was sure they were paying attention once again, Master spoke up. “We are not kicking anyone out of the Guild or demoting them. It’s just a good player being recruited to make us stronger. With Wrath coming up, we need the best team we can get, or we won’t be the top Guild on the server for long.”  
Tony was recovered enough from his original shock to threaten, “You better mark my words, Master, I won’t be replaced by your new Pal!”  
“IM, shut up,” Master snapped, sounding more tired than annoyed at this point. “Behave when you come back on the Guild’s main channel. CapAmerika is part of our team as of right now, so you better learn to deal with it.”

As he said that, the typical noise to inform that someone had joined the guild came out from the three different open games.

“Come and greet, Cap.”

 

When they came back on the main channel, everyone was chatting happily. Questions were thrown in the newcomer’s direction. A shy voice answered them, a soft laugh bubbling from time to time.

“Master is back,” Widow noted to the group at large. Her cold voice was unmistakable. Clint’s face broke into a huge smile.

Bruce and Tony rolled their eyes when Clint sat a little straighter in front of his screen. “Widow! Didn’t see you log in.” 

Bruce snorted. He sat down in front of his computer, moving his character to the auction house so he could check the latest gems on sale. Tony was brooding while Clint chatted Widow’s ears off. Master cleared his throat once more.

“Cap, let me introduce you to the Main Tank of the Guild, Ironman, a.k.a IM.”

Silence fell on the channel for a few seconds.

“Pleasure’s all mine, Ironman. I’ve heard a lot about your feats, and I’m honored to play by your side.”

Tony could feel the looks of his friends behind his back. His shoulders tensed, every fiber of his being stretched tight. He grit his teeth before faking a cheerful tone.

“No, the pleasure is all mine, Cap! Welcome to SHIELD.”

The tension dispersed and everyone went back to their chattering.

Glad to have the little ordeal of meeting Cap behind him, Tony addressed the channel, “Well, chatting is nice, but the Avengers are out. We’re going on our second round of PVP.”  
Before the three of them could exit, Stigner called out, “Hey, IM, wait! How about we do a warmup with Cap to see how we work as a team!” 

Clint hummed assent, drumming his fingers on the table. Bruce was still checking gems, but he didn’t seem to mind.

The voice of Cap chiming in made Tony’s eye twitch. “Good idea, Stigner!” 

Of course Cap would go for it. Tony turned to his friends, desperate for a way out. Neither was looking at him, their eyes glued to their screens. A muttered ‘traitors’ later, the billionaire teenager was morosely checking who was online.

Tony gave in. “What do you have in mind, Sting?”  
Before Stigner could answer, Master cut in. “If I may- I propose Zul’Aman. Let’s start with a challenge to test how Cap will do in the team.”

Thunderer, who was alway up for an instance, chipped in with his booming voice, “Indeed, such instance is a worthy fight! Do you suggest the ‘Bear Run’, Head Master?”

“Zul’Aman it is, then,” Tony agreed.

Twenty minutes later, they were all assembled in front of the NPC, waiting for the orders.

Master quickly ran through their positions. “IM, main Tank, Thunderer off tank as-”  
“Nay. Let the good Cap be the off tank for this challenge!” 

You could almost hear Master roll his eyes before clearing up the roles for everyone.

“Fine. I’ll heal Cap, JJ you take care of IM. Widow, you’ll be the marker.”

Tony was eyeing the group critically. At his side were JJ and Hawk. Widow was near Clint. Behind them, Cap was flanked by Master and Panther. Goliath and Stigner were at the back trading some goods. 

“Ready when you are, Ironman,” CapAmerika said cheerfully.

Cap was already playing on Tony’s last nerve with the way he called everyone by their full names, and the raid hadn’t even started yet. 

\-----------

Pepper watched Tony with interest before asking, “So why is he so moody this morning?”  
“Because the Guild recruited a Pal,” Bruce answered simply.

Pepper shot a half-quizzical, half-disgusted glance towards Bruce. “Not that I’m interested in your stupid game, nor will I try to understand it, but isn't getting more members in the guild better?”

“A Pally, Pepper!! A Pally!” Tony snapped.

Clint snickered, whispering loudly to Pepper, “He’s worried about his manhood.”

“Am not! Shut up!”  
Pepper sighed heavily. “Ok, I really don’t want to know now.”

The redhead took a bite of the baby carrot she held in her perfectly manicured hand. In front of her, Tony was moping, pushing around his fries and letting his burger get cold, which was the first cue for Pepper that something was wrong. Having finished his own burger, Clint was snatching some of the fries from Bruce’s plate, while the other was reading a book, unaware of his fries slowly disappearing.

“You gonna eat that?” Clint asked Tony when he’d nearly finished Bruce’s fries.

Tony sighed and pushed his plate toward Clint.

“You won’t get it, Pep.”

With that, the billionaire stood up and walked away, head hung low to add to his dramatic departure. Bruce sighed and closed his book with a soft thud. Pepper shook her head, desperate.

“Dare I ask what really happened?”  
Bruce frowned at her, because even explaining wouldn’t help Tony. “We did a rather difficult raid and the new guy was amazing.”

Tony was in the lab, but he wasn’t working. His head was resting in his arms, a sigh escaping his lips from time to time while he sulked like a petulant child. The door opened and the noise of the heels hitting the tile floor let the billionaire know Pepper was coming to try to cheer him up.

“Leave me alone, Pep.”

The redhead sat next to her oldest friend in silence, letting the dark haired teenager know that his mood wouldn’t push her away yet.

“What aren’t you telling?” she demanded  
“Nothing,” Tony grumbled.

The teenage boy huffed and turned his head away. Pepper carefully put her manicured hand on top of the dark mop of hair. She sat in silence. After a while, the head under her hand moved slowly. Taking it as a cue, she started to pet her friend. Tony finally broke the silence, his voice soft and whiny.

“He’s really good.”  
“I thought you were the best.”

Silence stretched and for a moment, Pepper assumed she wouldn’t get anything more from him. She was about to retreat, knowing that when his mind was set on pouting nothing would change it. She had hoped she could coax him into speaking, but she wouldn’t skip class for Mister Drama Queen. Tony groaned before finally spilling what was on his mind.

“When I joined the Guild, I was in competition with a Paladin. This new guy is a threat. He’s good, he has charisma and he’s a good team player. Everyone loves him”

For once, Pepper didn’t know what to say. They stayed there in silence until the bell rang. They both got up and left the lab. Before taking the turn to the hall that would lead the red head to her Spanish class, Tony gently grabbed her hand. Without a word, he hugged her. Letting Pepper go after a quick squeeze, he dashed on the other way, heading to his locker. A small smile came to her lips.

After class, the three teenagers were sitting in Tony’s gaming room, each of them on a Stark Tablette, checking different things for their cosplay. That night, they didn’t play. Blizz-Con was in a few months, and their costumes were still on the planning stages. Bruce was comparing his character with some body paint on some cosplay web site.

“And how do we plan to make the orbs in the shoulder pads glow?” he asked skeptically.  
“Let me worry about that,” Tony soothed.  
Clint was easier to please. “Can I customize the color of it? I’d like it in purple instead of red!”

Both Tony and Bruce rolled their eyes. Clint was staring at the Red Tier his hunter was wearing, poking on the Stark Tablet what he liked and what he didn’t like on Tony’s live adjustments. 

Bruce sounded reluctant. “I feel like it’s going to be messy. This greenish-blue is cool.”  
“You choose to play a tentacled blue alien, live with it,” Tony muttered.

Clint turned toward Bruce, eyes wide. Out of the three, Bruce had the most complex design. The helmet of Jade Jaws was already a crafting masterpiece and coming down to cover most of the face, the blond couldn’t wrap his mind on how they could add the tentacle thingies that came down the chin of the character’s race.

“You really gonna put on tentacles?” Clint asked, surprised.

Tony snickered before showing the new improved design of Hawkeye’s armor, this time in a shade of purple. The eye on top of the helmet was still red, and the result was breathtaking.

“There. Purple enough for you?”

A big smile appeared on Clint’s face. He nodded and imported the new version on his tablette, staring at it with admiration. Sending the final design to his private server, Tony brought up his armor’s character design. The major changes were already done; he was only hesitating on the color. 

“Jarvis, render two more designs with more gold,” he commanded.

A few seconds later the genius was faced with 4 different sets.

“What do you guys think?”  
“I like the middle one,” Bruce said reasonably. “Too much gold gives the impression you’re a pimp.”  
“The middle one with gold pants gives me the urge to sing ‘Smooth Criminal’. ‘Billie Jean’ over there is better,” Clint said.  
“Third one is the one, then. JARVIS start renderization, I want the first prototype for Friday night.”

Bruce took off his glasses to rub his eyes. They had worked on the designs since they arrived from school and it was getting late.

“Well, that’s about it for me, guys. Mum won’t be happy if I don’t make it for 10.”

The next day at school, things were erratic. Rumor was that a new student would start on Monday. It was late November and it wasn’t in the school tradition to have new students like this, hence the hype about it. Rhody finally dropped the bomb at dinner that day.

“He’s on the football scholarship!”

He was waving his fork around, almost taking out Tony’s eye. The dark haired teenager was sitting with Rhodes and Pepper at a small round table, since today was Bruce’s lab time and Clint’s archery practice.

“Calm down, champ!”  
“You don’t get it, Tony! We need a new team mate! We might stand a chance this year. Plus with Barnes with...”  
“Don’t.”  
Tony’s tone was cold. Pepper jumped in, stirring the conversation away from the touchy subject.

“Do we know more about this mysterious new student?”

Rhodey fidgeted a bit. Tony raised a brow. His friend was usually more forward with his requests. Something was fishy.

“Actually, I thought you could tell me more.”

Both set of eyes fell on Tony. 

“What?”  
“Your dad. On the school board. Common Tony, you have access to this kind of information.”

Faking being insulted, he fetched his tablet and hacked into the school files. After a few minutes, the file of the new student was displayed on the screen. With a flicker of Tony’s finger, the file appeared in a soft hue of blue by the hologram projector. Rogers, Steven was the name in bold next to a picture of a gorgeous blond haired, blue eyed perfectly square jaw and the dorkiest smile ever taken in photo. Pepper gushed over how dashing he looked while Tony read the rest of the file. Somehow a chill went down his spine. He could feel something was wrong. And his guts were never wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marker: Put symbols above monsters to show the other raid members what's the priority to kill the mob.


End file.
